The southern state also wanted the Centre to take steps to delete the proposed amendment as reported by the select committee of the Rajya Sabha and ratify contents of clause 10 approved by the Lok Sabha. “Bihar is one of the first states that declared it would hold a special session to clear the Bill”, said a senior Cabinet minister.
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Interestingly, not a single vote was cast against the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha when it was put to vote. The Prime Minister’s intervention during the debate in Lok Sabha has an added political significance as he is learnt to have set deadlines for the completion of tardy processes before the GST implementation becomes a reality.
Alongside, the cabinet has to constitute a GST Council, which is expected to have almost the same set up as the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, but chaired by the Union Finance Minister.
The states have also been asked to ratify the GST Bill within 30 days of the President’s assent to the landmark legislation.
Party sources, however, insisted that GST Bill is not the reason for these meetings as it is essentially a matter between the Centre and states and that organisational matters will be on top of Shah’s agenda.
Odisha Finance Minister said, “It is a great pleasure that the Constitution Amendment Bill for GST has been passed in the Rajya Sabha yesterday”.
However, an unlikely fallout of the GST Bill is that it may lead to a slowdown in the services sector.
Mr Jaitley said Model GST Bill has 233 odd clauses and 40,000 pages of representation have been received from industry in two months. GST will provide a simpler administrative framework to corporates, reduce their tax governing costs, provide swifter mobility across states, and improve the overall cost competitiveness, the ratings agency said.
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Parsekar said that there is no involvement of any risk factor as the Central government has assured us to compensate tax for five years.
